CP Gurnani & Raman Roy Appointed Chairman, Vice-Chairman for NASSCOM for 2016 - 2017

National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) has announced the appointment of CP Gurnani as its Chairman for 2016-2017. He will take on the new role as Chairman of NASSCOM effective 6 April 2016. He succeeds BVR Mohan Reddy, who served as Chairman of NASSCOM for 2015-16. 

Gurnani is part of NASSCOM’s Executive Council and is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Tech Mahindra. As Chairman of the Executive Council, He will lead and assist NASSCOM in catalyzing the growth of the Indian technology and services industry and enabling the fulfillment of its future goals and aspirations. The Executive Council also announced the appointment of Raman Roy, Chairman and Managing Director of Quatrro Global Services as the Vice Chairman of NASSCOM for 2016-17.

Speaking on the occasion, CP Gurnani, Chairman, NASSCOM and MD & CEO, Tech Mahindra, “I feel very humbled to be given this opportunity, at a time when the industry is on the threshold of an exciting new journey. Innovative startups and disruptive technology have together created exciting times for the industry. Being at the helm of NASSCOM, I will continue to drive greater engagement with our stakeholders and members to address the prevalent industry issues of inclusion, education, infrastructure security and corporate governance.”

BVR Mohan Reddy, Former Chairman, NASSCOM stated that, “I feel very proud of the progress the industry has witnessed in the past one year. 2015 was a defining year for the industry as we outlined our vision for the decade ahead and witnessed innovative entrepreneurs rise to achieve tremendous success, making India one of the key Startup hubs across the globe. It has been a great opportunity leading NASSCOM during the last one year and I am confident that NASSCOM will grow from strength to strength.”

Chairman, CP Gurnani along with Vice-Chairman, Raman Roy and President, R Chandrashekhar will lead NASSCOM to carry out its diverse array of priorities to enable NASSCOM in achieving the 2020 vision for the industry.

HGS Website-as-a-Channel Now Combines Virtual & Live Support to Optimize Customer Experience

Hinduja Global Solutions Limited (HGS) has announced the enhancement of Website-as-a-Channel (WaaC), an intelligent customer engagement offering that helps businesses give their customers the right answer fast. HGS WaaC is a self-service system that combines virtual and live agent customer support, creating a more efficient and engaging customer experience.

“When it comes to online customer experiences, today’s consumers have high expectations,” said Parikshit Kalra, Senior Vice President of Solutions and Capabilities at HGS. “They demand web interactions that are fast, seamless, and engaging—across all of their devices. That’s what Website-as-a-Channel is all about: creating a painless experience that delivers the right answer fast.”

An online self-service system, HGS WaaC revolutionizes the way customers get answers to their questions with intelligent search, self-help videos, and highly interactive virtual assistant capabilities. HGS WaaC features smart design that enables intuitive and satisfactory customer experiences, turning consumers with problems into brand promoters. The service is powered by Smart Channel Selector, HGS’ proprietary technology uses analytics to guide the consumer and automatically pivots to the best channel to ensure resolution, including live agents. Smart channel selector is constantly learning; it gauges customer satisfaction with the resolutions it provides and optimizes the experience to help consumers get the right answer fast.

The HGS WaaC solution is so successful that for a particular client up to 97% of customers on the portal get their issue resolved without needing further assistance from an agent.  By using automation and analytics to contextualize and personalize the experience HGS WaaC is making it easy to do business. In addition to improving overall customer satisfaction, the service drives tremendous cost-savings ranging from 30-60 percent for the client.

HGS provides WaaC to businesses by working through existing company websites or by creating and managing new custom portals for customer support. The solution resolves customer questions across multiple devices, including mobile phones and tablets. HGS WaaC is cloud-based, capital-light, and quick to deploy in as little as 90–120 days. It does not require a complete transformation of a company’s website or support infrastructure.

HGS WaaC uses HGS Digital Natural Assist (DNA), a knowledge management technology that unifies the customer experience across channels. A full-service solution, HGS DNA helps companies in complex industries save time and money by helping customers easily access the information they need, often on their own.

HGS WaaC has garnered significant accolades since its implementation in 2013. The solution won a Gold Stevie Award for Best Use of Technology in Customer Service (2016), Gold Contact Center World Award for Best Outsourcing Partnership (Americas) (2015), and Best of Outsourcing Thought Leadership Award – Cost-Savings (2015).

“With the vast majority of customer engagements beginning online, over a variety of devices and channels, the entire customer experience needs to be rethought,” said Chris Lord, Head of Global Growth, Strategy and Marketing at HGS. “Getting the first customer engagement touch point right by empowering consumers to find and connect with the answer they are seeking is critical. Our goal with Website-as-a-Channel is to ensure consumers get the right answer fast while driving business results with an amazing CX.”

Semiconductor Wafer-Level Manufacturing Equipment Market Globally Declined 1% in 2015

Worldwide semiconductor wafer-level manufacturing equipment revenue totaled $33.6 billion in 2015, a 1 percent decline from 2014, according to final results by Gartner, Inc. The top 10 vendors accounted for 77 percent of the market, down slightly from 78 percent in 2014.

"Slowing demand for key electronics end markets, combined with looming oversupply in memory, prompted semiconductor manufacturers to adopt conservative capital spending plans in 2015, which impacted spending on WFE," said Bob Johnson, research vice president at Gartner. "Strength in memory spending was not sufficient to overcome caution in logic markets as major producers focused on logic process upgrades instead of adding new capacity."

Applied Materials retained the No. 1 position in the WFE market with 1.3 percent growth (see Table 1). The industry's investments in 3D device manufacturing, fin field-effect transistor (FinFET) and 3D NAND were the main drivers for the company's growth in 2015. Lam Research experienced the strongest growth of the top 10 vendors in 2015, moving into the No. 2 position. The move of the industry to 3D device manufacturing pushed the company to 24.7 percent growth. Lam continues to be the dominant conductor etch manufacturer, but competition in the etch and deposition segment is expected to be fierce moving forward.

"Capital spending in 2015 was selective, with logic manufacturers focused on upgrades and the latest technology buys, while memory added new capacity in response to increased demand and favorable pricing," said Johnson. "However, there was another factor at work: Both the yen and euro declined significantly against the dollar in 2015. In a market which was essentially flat over the previous year, the changes in these exchange rates had a noticeable effect, especially in the lithography segment, where all tools are priced in either euros or yen."

In dollar terms, lithography dropped 13 percent, the largest decline of any of the major segments. Two segments were especially strong: The ion implant segment grew 24 percent, and the material removal and clean segment grew 6 percent. Process control overall declined 2.5 percent, with the optical patterned wafer inspection segment dropping 15 percent as manufacturers held back on purchases of new inspection tools.

Oracle Brings Cloud Platform inside Customers’ Own Datacenters

To kickstart Oracle CloudWorld Mumbai, the company has introduced Oracle Cloud at Customer in India, a new suite of offerings that remove some of the biggest challenges organizations face when transitioning to the cloud. Oracle Cloud at Customer provides Chief Information Officers (CIOs) with new choices in where they deploy their enterprise software and a natural path to easily move business critical applications from on-premise to the cloud.

“While organizations in India are eager to move their enterprise workloads to the public cloud, many have been constrained by business, legislative and regulatory requirements, especially in tightly-controlled industries such as telecommunications, government, and banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI),” said Oracle’s Senior Vice President of Cloud, Shawn Price. “With today’s launch, Oracle addresses these challenges so that organizations across industries can reap the performance, cost and innovation benefits of Oracle Public Cloud and run it wherever they want – in Oracle Cloud or in their own datacenter.”

“This is the first offering from a major public cloud vendor that delivers a stack that is 100 percent compatible with Oracle Cloud, but available on-premises,” added Shailender Kumar, managing director, Oracle India. “Companies in India, especially those bound by regulatory pressures, can now leverage the cloud and speed up their business transformation. Oracle Cloud at Customer supports complete control over data, while facilitating data sovereignty and data residency requirements.”

Since the software is seamless with Oracle Cloud, customers can use it for a number of use cases, including disaster recovery, elastic bursting, dev/test, lift-and-shift workload migration, and with a single API and scripting toolkit for DevOps. It allows organizations to get all of the benefits of Oracle Cloud in their data center – agility, simplicity, performance, elastic scaling, and subscription pricing. Oracle Cloud at Customer solutions cover infrastructure, data management, application development, enterprise integration and management.

Additionally, customers can:

-       Enable workload portability between on-premises and cloud using identical environments, toolsets, and APIs.

-       Easily move Oracle and non-Oracle workloads between on-premises and the cloud based on their changing business requirements.

-       Work with security and privacy regulations such as PCI-DSS for the global credit and debit card industry, HIPAA for the US healthcare industry, FedRAMP for the US federal government, Germany's Federal Data Protection Act, the United Kingdom's Data Protection Act, and other industry- and country-specific regulations.

Cloud technology is one of the most significant opportunities in Oracle’s history. The company is in a period of hyper growth and has bolstered its cloud presence throughout India within a variety of business segments. Many customers are purchasing more than one Oracle Cloud service and renewing at high rates. In India, Oracle Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Cloud, Oracle Human Capital Management (HCM) Cloud, Oracle Customer Experience (CX) Cloud, and Oracle Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offerings are attracting customers including Fiat Automobiles, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Hi-Tech Textile Automation, IndusInd Bank, Kovaion Consulting, LnT Finance, Safexpress Pvt. Ltd., Sun Edison, Schneider Electric, Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt. Ltd., among others.

Globally, Oracle Cloud has shown strong adoption, supporting 70+ million users and more than 34 billion transactions each day. It runs in 19 data centers around the world.

Rs.1762.98 Cr worth Contracts for MEP Infra Under Hybrid Annuity from NHAI & MORTH

MEP Infrastructure Developers Ltd, in a joint venture (JV) with its Spanish partner has received Letters of Award (LOAs) for Rs.1762.98 Crores from National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH).

“We are happy to begin the new financial year with this big news. I am sure with the  in-house capability strength we will not only handle these projects and complete them well within the stipulated time but we also look forward to playing a significant role in the country’s infrastructure development,” said Mr. Jayant D Mhaiskar, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, MEP Infrastructure Developers Ltd.

The LOAs bagged by MEP are as per the new Hybrid Annuity Mode, which is a mix of engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) and build operate transfer (BOT) system. The Authority and the private companies share the total project cost in the ratio of 40: 60 respectively. This new form will help reduce financial load during the development and execution stage. This will definitely aid in reviving the highway projects in the country.

MEP Infrastructure Developers Ltd has formed a joint venture with Sanjose India Infrastructure & Construction Pvt. Ltd with each holding 74 % and 26 % respectively.

MEP JV has received an LOA from MORTH for rehabilitation and up-gradation of NH-66 (Erstwhile NH-17) from km. 241/300 to km 281/300 (Total Length – 40/000 Km.) on Arawali - Kante section in Maharashtra to Four Lane with paved shoulder under NHDP IV on Hybrid Annuity Mode. The Bid Project Cost is Rs.592.98 Crores and O&M Bid is for Rs.5.67 Crores for the First Year.

MEP JV has also received LOA from NHAI for Four Lane Stand Alone Ring Road/ Bypasses for Nagpur City Package I from Km 0+500 to Km 34+000 (Total Length – 33+500 Km) on BOT (Hybrid Annuity) basis. The Bid Project Cost is Rs.531.00 Crores and O&M Bid is for Rs.6.30 Crores for the First Year.

In a third LOA from NHAI, MEP JV has been mandated for Four Lane Stand Alone Ring Road/Bypasses for Nagpur City, Package-II from km 34+500 to km 62+035. (Total Length - 28+035 km) in the State of Maharashtra on BOT (Hybrid Annuity) basis. The Bid Project Cost is Rs.639.00 Crores and OnM Bid is Rs.6.75 Crores for the First Year.

Adding to their achievements, MEP IDL has also bagged LOAs from the Road Infrastructure Development Company of Rajasthan Ltd (RIDCOR) for "Collection of fee through contractor on the basis of competitive Bidding for Lalsot-Kota Road and Alwar-Sikandra Road in Rajasthan for fee plaza [s] at the below Locations. The contractual amount for the project is Rs.30.33 Crores and Rs.19. 08 Crores respectively.

WinMagic’s SecureDoc CloudVM for Enterprise Encryption Now Support Virtual Machines in India

WinMagic, Inc. has introduces security software that encrypts virtual machines running on Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) platforms in India. Addressing the growing concerns of protecting critical assets stored within virtual environments, SecureDoc CloudVM is an enterprise encryption solution that offers support for Windows-based platforms running in public, private and hybrid cloud environments through application aware intelligent key management.

The application aware intelligent key management capability embedded within SecureDoc CloudVM offers a single pane of glass view into where and how encryption is being deployed. The solution increases visibility and strengthens data security within virtual environments by controlling the encryption key management system across a vast array of layers including endpoints, file servers, virtual servers, enterprise file sync and share (EFSS) solutions and Internet of Things (IoT) instances. SecureDoc CloudVM’s application aware intelligent key management capability alleviates the problems associated with protecting multiple encrypted layers and managing associated keys and credentials by providing unique key and policy management for virtualized workloads.

For almost two decades, WinMagic has made it easy to secure data with SecureDoc, a highly secure yet flexible solution that enables businesses to comply with privacy and security regulations by protecting sensitive data residing in laptops, desktops, servers and on removable media. SecureDoc provides customers with the most robust data encryption and security support in the industry by centrally managing everything encryption-related within the enterprise.

“As more and more organizations turn to cloud adoption for a cost-effective approach to scalability and efficiency in the workplace, there is an increasing focus on the lack of proper data security across public, private and hybrid cloud environments,” said James LaPalme, Vice President, Cloud Solutions at WinMagic. “SecureDoc CloudVM alleviates the anxiety associated with storing business critical data in the cloud. Through a cloud-agnostic approach to encryption, WinMagic is giving the control of key management back to the IT department, all while ensuring the protection and security of data stored in virtualized workloads.” 

Key features and benefits of SecureDoc CloudVM include:

·         Centralized intelligent key management: SecureDoc CloudVM offers a single platform manager of encryption from the endpoint, to the cloud, to IoT and beyond. All of this can be simply achieved across public, private and hybrid cloud environments storing virtual data, even alongside other full disk encryption methods.

·         Windows Protection: SecureDoc CloudVM offers full virtual machine encryption for Windows- only environments running in public, private and hybrid cloud instances.

·         Compliance and auditing report capability: SecureDoc CloudVM enables IT departments to ensure that the way in which sensitive data is encrypted remains compliant based on regulatory and industry standards. 

The new offering from WinMagic follows recently conducted research that further proves cloud adoption is on the rise, but sensitive data stored in virtual environments is not always secure. According to a WinMagic-commissioned survey conducted online by Spiceworks in December 2015 among 150 IT decision makers currently using or planning to use cloud computing services and solutions, very few IT decision makers believe their data is completely secure in either a private cloud (29%) or public cloud (11%) environment. However, when it comes to actually encrypting data stored in virtual environments, the most common approach to securing data is in encrypting network traffic (53%) – while only one-third encrypt or plan to encrypt data at the disk/device level.

“The data from this survey further proves that although cloud adoption continues to drive at the forefront of future and current IT investments, there is an apparent lack of confidence when it comes to whether data stored in these virtual environments is actually secure,” explained Mark Hickman, COO, WinMagic. “Ironically enough, although confidence in the security of both private and public cloud environments is low, the enterprise is still not doing enough to protect its data. SecureDoc CloudVM is a wake-up call to the enterprise: data encryption should be the number one priority when it comes to implementing a sound approach to securing data stored in cloud environments.”

SecureDoc CloudVM, which is available now for Beta with a full release in Spring 2016, is an extension of WinMagic’s flagship solution SecureDoc and the recently announced SecureDoc CloudSync solution that encrypts files at the endpoint before they are synchronized to EFSS services across a range of enterprise platforms including: Windows, Mac, iOS and Android. With SecureDoc, customers have deployed the solution to manage BitLocker, a popular encryption method from Microsoft; BitLocker users that leverage SecureDoc are able to avoid the handful of issues related to encryption such as password-reset and user provisioning challenges. 

SecureDoc can also manage other encryption methods, such as Trusted Computer Group (TCG) Opal drives, Apple’s FileVault 2 and SecureDoc’s own FIPS 140-2 certified software encryption. SecureDoc is therefore compatible with the most advanced storage approaches and common operating systems without experiencing any of the hassles typically associated with encryption management.

IBS B School Introduces Electives Courses in Big Data, Digital Marketing & Advanced Analytics

By Manu Sharma
The entire class of 180 PGDM students finishing from IBS Business School in Bengaluru are set for another 100 percent placements during 2016. The B school claims about 75 companies will came over for campus placements including: BFSI, Consulting; IT/ITeS, Manufacturing and even Startups.  The unique features this year is that companies looking for skills in Big Data Analytics, Advanced Analytics and Digital Marketing can now hire these special skilled students during the placements.

Addressing the media, Prof J. Venkataraman, Dean (Placements), IBS Business School, Bengaluru says, “Keeping in view of the industry requirements, from this calendar year we have introduced special elective courses in analytics in the second year and these include Big Data Analytics, Digital Marketing and Advance Analytics giving them the special edge over other students. So companies like TCS, HCL Technologies and Oracle besides a host of MNC banks can now absorb our students for their special skills in analytics as well.”

Prof Venkataraman adds that another feature introduced is a 14 week Summer Internship Project (SIP) for our students giving them the much-needed industry exposure. So students with an average salary between Rs 5.5 lakh to Rs 9 lakh can now get expect another 10-15 percent jump from this year.

The two year PGPM Program of IBS Bengaluru is designed to impart managerial skills in students and equip them with appropriate knowledge so that they are able to have a global view of the organization, and look at organizational issues from a holistic perspective, irrespective of their specialization in a particular functional area.

The courses offered in the program are practice-oriented with emphasis placed on application of principles, tools and concepts to address the challenges and problems faced by today’s organizations. These courses are carefully designed to facilitate learning in managerial decision making in the context of organizational strategy. Students are encouraged to critically evaluate decision situations and use rigorous analysis in arriving at a particular decision. At the same time, the ethical implications of their decisions are also urged to be considered. 

The program is aimed at deepening the understanding of the key functional areas and strategic dimensions of management, and equipping future professionals with the latest tools and techniques.

SIP

One of the unique features of the program offered at IBS Bengaluru is the 14 weeks Summer Internship Project (SIP) that our students have to undergo at the end of Semester II. This extended duration makes the SIP more than an academic project, and students can make a real contribution to the organization. The students get an exposure to the working of an organization for a reasonable duration, which allows them to understand the nuances of corporate working. SIP is a vehicle for introducing students to real-life situation, which cannot be simulated in the classroom and requires the students to undergo the rigor of professional environment both in form and substance. It exposes them to technical skills and helps them to acquire social skills by drawing them onto contact with real professionals.

Soft Skills

IBS believes that soft skills are as important as the hard skills which are imparted in the program. Therefore, soft skills’ training is in-built into this program. Students, in addition to learning about management are also shaped into well-rounded personalities through improved communication and presentation skills. Some of the focus areas of the soft-skills program are:  English Language Skills, which include spoken and written skills Good presentation skills. Developing  self-confidence, inter-personal skills, team building and leadership Imparting confidence in facing every kind of group discussion and interview situations during placements

Case Methodology

Case teaching methodology is a hallmark of teaching at IBS.  The Case Method exposes students to real-life business situations and encourages them to look at a problem or challenge from various dimensions. It is expected that students will study cases, comprehend the business situation, analyze the problems and come up with alternatives/solutions and then discuss the case in class. A good case is a very powerful instrument in evaluating a student as it puts the student into the shoes of the real-world managers who must face the challenge of decision-making.

The MBA program is offered at Dehradun, Hyderabad, and Jaipur. The PGPM program is offered at Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Gurgaon, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune. The BBA program is offered at Hyderabad.